Shark fins of different sizes on sale in a shop in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan district. Hunting sharks for their fins has become big business across the globe, as shark-fin soup—once an expensive delicacy unaffordable to most—soars in popularity among China’s growing, newly affluent middle class. Up to 73 million sharks are killed annually, and some recent estimates hold that up to 90 percent of the shark population in open oceans has already disappeared.

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Paul Hilton is a Hong Kong-based photojournalist, who focuses on global environmental and conservation issues. Presently, Hilton is working on a manta and mobula ray project, Manta Ray of Hope, documenting the plight of the great rays and investigating and the use of gill rakers in traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and Southern China.